Ogi: Silly EEKeepered Playthrough
OlvynChuru
Member Posts: 3,079
This is a really fun and unique solo playthrough of Baldur's Gate 1 I recently started that involved lots of EEKeeper-meddling with the character, whose name is Ogi. I'm not allowed to level him up past level 1 and I don't plan on making him spam wands all day long (since he's a pure fighter), but I made some changes to his stats to make him interesting to use, mainly a gigantic accuracy bonus and a 99% resistance to all damage types, however everything will still do 1 damage. He has 5 HP, so despite his high resistances he will die in 5 hits normally. I also made it so that he starts with the Backbiter Spear and the Studded Leather Armor of Missile Attraction equipped; I'm not allowed to have anyone take those off him. Here's his character screen:
However, here is what makes him really interesting to use: I made it so that he instantly casts certain spells when various conditions are met, sort of like the spell Contingency. Here are all the triggers and effects:
*Whenever Ogi gets hit by an enemy, he casts Power Word: Kill and Energy Drain on himself, and casts Power Word: Kill on the attacker (keep in mind that he has 5 HP and is at level 1, so both effects will kill him normally).
*Whenever he takes damage from anything (including when he damages himself), he casts Negative Plane Protection on himself.
*Whenever he kills someone, he casts Invisibility on himself.
In addition, each round the following things happen:
*If Ogi is within 4 feet or so of another character, friend or foe, he casts a version of Dispel Magic on himself which will always dispel all effects.
*If he is within 10 feet or so of another character, friend or foe, he casts Death Ward and Protection from Energy on himself.
*If he has less than 25% HP left, he casts Cure Light Wounds on himself (however if the enemies hit him quickly enough he won't have time to heal).
*If he has less than 50% HP left, he casts Ice Storm on himself.
*If he is poisoned, he casts Neutralize Poison on himself but also goes berserk (it's the same berserk ability that Minsc has).
*If he is helpless, he casts Armor of Faith on himself and casts Domination on the nearest enemy.
One last rule is that I'm not allowed to lose reputation. It's also not a no-reload playthrough, and it's definitely not meant for roleplaying.
So to start, Ogi did not buy anything from Winthrop. He went into one of the buildings and discovered that someone wanted to kill him. Perhaps that someone could've succeeded if he hadn't announced his intent first. Ogi quickly stabbed him and killed him. He then immediately went to see Gorion and they left. They were ambushed by mysterious assailants, and although some of them managed to shoot Ogi, he didn't die (it seems like all his triggers were disabled in the cutscene). The next morning, Imoen came along and tried to get Ogi to bring her along. He took her healing potions (but none of her other items) and went south without her.
Eventually Ogi arrived at the High Hedge, and things started getting rough. There were skeletons with darts lurking in the area, and they could instantly kill him with a single dart before he had a chance to get to them. I ended up having to reload several times here. He obviously shouldn't go right up to the skeletons unprotected, since his armor makes the skeletons extremely likely to hit him. So, what I did was have him kill a nearby squirrel to get Negative Plane Protection (NPP) and invisibility, then approach the skeletons to get a Death Ward, and finally attack one of the skeletons. If he could manage to destroy the skeleton in one hit, he could become invisible again, and he could pick off the skeletons one by one. Eventually he failed to destroy one in a single hit so the rest started to attack him. However, anyone who hit him died from Power Word: Kill and he didn't due to his protections. Eventually Ogi destroyed all the skeletons... but why did he bother fighting them? From that point on, he didn't fight any skeletons that had ranged weapons unless he REALLY had to. Then he headed east to Beregost.
That's all for now.
However, here is what makes him really interesting to use: I made it so that he instantly casts certain spells when various conditions are met, sort of like the spell Contingency. Here are all the triggers and effects:
*Whenever Ogi gets hit by an enemy, he casts Power Word: Kill and Energy Drain on himself, and casts Power Word: Kill on the attacker (keep in mind that he has 5 HP and is at level 1, so both effects will kill him normally).
*Whenever he takes damage from anything (including when he damages himself), he casts Negative Plane Protection on himself.
*Whenever he kills someone, he casts Invisibility on himself.
In addition, each round the following things happen:
*If Ogi is within 4 feet or so of another character, friend or foe, he casts a version of Dispel Magic on himself which will always dispel all effects.
*If he is within 10 feet or so of another character, friend or foe, he casts Death Ward and Protection from Energy on himself.
*If he has less than 25% HP left, he casts Cure Light Wounds on himself (however if the enemies hit him quickly enough he won't have time to heal).
*If he has less than 50% HP left, he casts Ice Storm on himself.
*If he is poisoned, he casts Neutralize Poison on himself but also goes berserk (it's the same berserk ability that Minsc has).
*If he is helpless, he casts Armor of Faith on himself and casts Domination on the nearest enemy.
One last rule is that I'm not allowed to lose reputation. It's also not a no-reload playthrough, and it's definitely not meant for roleplaying.
So to start, Ogi did not buy anything from Winthrop. He went into one of the buildings and discovered that someone wanted to kill him. Perhaps that someone could've succeeded if he hadn't announced his intent first. Ogi quickly stabbed him and killed him. He then immediately went to see Gorion and they left. They were ambushed by mysterious assailants, and although some of them managed to shoot Ogi, he didn't die (it seems like all his triggers were disabled in the cutscene). The next morning, Imoen came along and tried to get Ogi to bring her along. He took her healing potions (but none of her other items) and went south without her.
Eventually Ogi arrived at the High Hedge, and things started getting rough. There were skeletons with darts lurking in the area, and they could instantly kill him with a single dart before he had a chance to get to them. I ended up having to reload several times here. He obviously shouldn't go right up to the skeletons unprotected, since his armor makes the skeletons extremely likely to hit him. So, what I did was have him kill a nearby squirrel to get Negative Plane Protection (NPP) and invisibility, then approach the skeletons to get a Death Ward, and finally attack one of the skeletons. If he could manage to destroy the skeleton in one hit, he could become invisible again, and he could pick off the skeletons one by one. Eventually he failed to destroy one in a single hit so the rest started to attack him. However, anyone who hit him died from Power Word: Kill and he didn't due to his protections. Eventually Ogi destroyed all the skeletons... but why did he bother fighting them? From that point on, he didn't fight any skeletons that had ranged weapons unless he REALLY had to. Then he headed east to Beregost.
That's all for now.
6
Comments
Good luck with that.
First of all, due to the weird mechanics of the playthrough, any enemy with a ranged weapon can be a huge pain. If Ogi doesn't have both Death Ward and Negative Plane Protection on, anybody can kill him in one hit, and due to his armor they will be very likely to hit him. A single kobold with a bow could end up being more of a threat than Drizzt! I definitely got past the Nashkel Mines, though I don't remember whether I had Ogi fight his way through the kobold army or I had him become invisible and go through most of the level without fighting. Whatever the case, I know that he would have to break his invisibility to fight Mulahey, so there was probably some action.
A lot of the fights against clerics with Hold Person ended up being pretty silly. He would become invincible and start dominating people, but if someone got too close to him, it would dispel the invincibility, the hold effect, and potentially the domination effect. While fighting the "amazon" assassins, I learned that surprisingly it ended up being better to avoid getting hit with a status effect, despite that the status effect would make him invincible. If the invincibility got dispelled, it would also dispel the things protecting him from being killed instantly.
When he reached the bandit camp, he died many times while I was looking for a way to get in without running into a ranged bandit that could kill him instantly on sight. I probably could've had him join the bandits; I'm not sure why I didn't. Maybe he was assaulted by Black Talon Elites in Peldvale on the way to Raiken. Anyway, I had Ogi kill a squirrel or some other animal to become invisible, then he went to the camp and snuck into Tazok's tent. After getting a Death Ward, I think he stabbed Venkt to get NPP, then the three other guards attacked him and got themselves killed by Power Word Kill. One way or another he finished off Venkt without dying.
I don't remember much about Chapter 4. I guess it was pretty uneventful.
When I got to Chapter 5, I had Ogi go straight to Ulgoth's Beard, and Shandalar teleported him to the island. To make things interesting, I decided to set a goal: Ogi must kill all the mages on the island in a single go. I saved the game after he took care of the first few winter wolves in the level, and I wouldn't save the game again until I've beaten all the mages. So far I haven't managed to complete the challenge and so this is where Ogi has stayed for a while. However, I also haven't been trying to do it much, so maybe if I put some more effort into it I'd eventually succeed.
I'm considering continuing the playthrough, but there's one more thing I'd like to mention about it. Since I left Ogi at the mage island, I have used EEKeeper to change the game in many, many silly ways, particularly in how the enemies work. For example, now all the Kobold Commandos have an Arrow of Detonation that they will fire if you don't kill them first, werewolves are stealthy and can backstab, and quite a few enemy mages have Aura Cleansing and/or zero casting time. If I continue this playthrough, Ogi will have to go through a lot of crazy things like this that aren't normally in the game. However, I haven't changed the enemies in the mage island at all. I wonder whether or not you all are fine with me playing such an unrecognizable game.